The One That Wasn't Extraordinary
by The Other Side of Darkness
Summary: AU Major. Naruto wasn't born to Whirlpool Royalty or the Fourth Hokage. He doesn't have a demon in his belly. He doesn't have a bloodline unique to his family. He can't do anything anyone else can't... But he's still the hero.NaruxFemHaku.
1. Chapter 1

This story is inspired by two things.

One: Ever was there a story of a character who truly had nothing special about them stumble into greatness? I mean no old blood lines of mystical power, no naval dwelling demon king, no super parents with mysterious and prestigious backgrounds, no blessings from gods that no mortal has heard the name of in centuries, no super genius analytics, or any of that bull. I haven't found one yet so I guess I'll have to do my own.

Two: an anime called Airmaster. That show gave me the idea for the fighting style naruto will use. If you get the chance to watch it you should just ignore the parts between the fight scenes as nothing really important happens, just a bunch of bull, mostly focused on the bouncing busom of another character.

I've decided to break a habit with this story. I'll be carefully writing out almost every fight scene instead of simply glossing over them.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Airmaster.

Chapter One: The Ordinary Orphan

Naruto Uzumaki was not an ordinary orphan. He did not dwell on who his parents may have been. He did not stew in melancholy over the fact that by having no parental figures he may not be a good parent in the long run. He didn't care that he may not be able to marry the girl of his dreams simply because he had nothing to his name.

All he really cared about was being able to live his life to it's fullest. He figured that if life ever threw him a curve ball, he'd adjust his hold on the bat, swing away, and break for first base as best he could.

The young Uzumaki _was_ a rather well known prankster. He grinned at his latest work of art.

Oh, he'd probably be locked up in the Konoha jail for a month or so and have a couple hundred dollars added to his bill of charges, but it was worth it. He could already hear the people yelling in surprise and anger at the current status of their monument to the greatest ninja to ever live.

Oh, yes. He had painted the faces of the Hokage Monument, and didn't do too bad if you asked him.

"YOU DELINQUANT!!" shouted a chuunin running up the monument using his chakra to stick to the stone surface.

Naruto just grinned and pushed off and away from the stone face of the Yondaime straight into mid air. He curled his arms closed to his body and started a spin as he descended. The chuunin and his partner stared a little shocked that the kid would do such a suicidal thing.

The blonde haired chuunin jumped after Uzumaki, trying to stop him from falling to his death. He was promptly used as a spring board.

Naruto stopped spinning by putting his arms out at full length side ways, and kicked upwards, stopping his descent enough to place himself above the chuunin and then used said chuunin's head as a solid jumping point, propelling himself back toward the monument, high enough to grab onto one of the Yondaime's spikey locks of hair and swing up to the top of the monument.

"Heh, You're gonna have to do a lot better than that if you ever want to catch me! Nyaa!" He pulled down his left eyelid and stuck out his tongue... and was immediately caught in a hold from behind.

"What the hell are you doing, Naruto?" asked a familiar voice.

"EH?! Let me down, let me down! I don't wanna go back to class!" Naruto began to writhe in the chuunin's grip, "Let me go, Iruka-sensei!"

Unfortunately for Naruto, Iruka didn't really feel like letting go right then, "No way, idiot! Now stop wriggling!" Iruka proceeded to bash his wayward student over the head.

When Naruto regained consciousness a few minutes later he was bound tightly with rope and in front of his class as Iruka began yet another boring lecture. He could see a few select students looking at him with amusement, pitty, and boredom.

He felt a bit of pride knowing he had disrupted the daily life of the village enough that more than half the class was ignoring Iruka in favor of him.

"...And so, because of Naruto's little stunt, you all get to review the Henge!" Iruka said loudly regaining all the students' attention. They groaned in unison and some glared pointedly at the lanky blonde.

Slowly as the children moved to form a line in front of the teacher Naruto wriggled his way out of the ropes and moved to the middle of the line. He had to think up a suitable prank in response to this.

As the line moved forward he noticed Hyuuga Hinata, a shy young girl that was the next in line for head of the Hyuuga clan, seemed to be staring at some one in particular quite intently near the front of the line. He looked forward and was not surprised to see a fellow blonde at the front of the line.

Naruto had long since realized that Hinata was one of only two girls in the entire class who didn't want anything to do with the broody Uchiha. Hinata had it in for a young man named Riki Benso. For reasons Naruto didn't understand, or really care about, Benso was a pariah for Konoha. For some reason, again not really understood or cared about, Hinata found his willingness to survive attractive. Unfortunately for her she was far too shy to say anything and young Benso had his eyes set on a pinkette named Sakura.

The other girl was a flunk out from the previous year who stayed mostly to herself.

"Uzumaki!" Iruka yelled for the third time, finally snapping Naruto out of his thoughts.

His time cut short, Naruto panicked. He knew he couldn't pull anything major now.

_Oh, well. Some of the small pranks are the best,_ And he did the hand signs for the transformation technique.

Iruka had missed, fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you see it, the particularly devious grin Naruto had on before the smoke enshrouded him.

When the smoke cleared Iruka heard some gasps and looked up from his clipboard just in time to look in to the roaring hungry maw of a creature straight out of hell. It had large leathery wings, cloven hooves for feet, three dagger like claws on each hand with a mouth and eyes in each palm, the head had a long snout dripping with acidic saliva, the teeth that lined the jaws were razor sharp and as long as Iruka's fingers, the eyes were like looking into the abyss a never ending darkness that would swallow you whole before you had a chance to escape, and the laugh was Naruto's.

Iruka had expected to see many things from his favorite and, paradoxically, most hated student. A naked girl, himself, a cow...okay, only maybe a cow. A demon who's likeness could be described in only the most horrifying drunken nightmares however was something knew.

Even knowing it was Naruto didn't stop the Scream-like-a-little-girl-and-jump-away reaction.

As Iruka clung to the ceiling fumbling hopelessly for some kind of religious ward, Naruto changed back and laughed with the rest of his classmates.

Naruto knew he was going to pay in the end, but it was so worth it to see his sensei clinging to the ceiling like a scared cat. He'd probably feel the beating to come for weeks, but he'd managed to snap a photo of his teacher before he stopped clinging to the ceiling.

"NARUTO!!"

+-- A few hours later --+

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Naruto groaned as he placed a soothing wet cloth on his aching head, "He didn't have to hit me so hard, damn it!"

After coming down from the ceiling, Iruka delivered a sledgehammer blow to Naruto's head and then dragged him off to clean the Hokage monument. It took a couple hours, and now here he sat, trying to ward away the massive headache so he could make it to what might be the last street fight in his career.

He figured his ninja duty would take up most of his time, what with saving princesses, taking out evil warlords, and being an all around ass kicker.

"Damn it! If I can't ignore this pain I'm gonna get my ass beat!" Naruto sat up and pulled the cloth from his forehead. How was he supposed to fight with a lump half the size of his head getting in the way. He sighed deep and depressed and decided to head for Ichiraku's Ramen stand. Maybe it'd be okay to get a bowl tonight. It might even help him feel better.

He threw on a long sleeved grey shirt, a pair of green cargo shorts, and a pair of regular sandals. He slung a pair of running shoes over his shoulder, made sure he had enough money, and headed out the front door.

He grinned slightly as he looked over the city from the top floor of his apartment building. If there was one thing he absolutely loved about this city it was the buildings and the trees that abounded, always giving him another spring board to fly with.

Hell that was how his fighting style started.

He'd always dreamt of being able to fly, to soar through the sky unhindered by gravity. Then he saw a professional gymnast at one of the many yearly festivals held in Konoha. The way that magician of the air moved was like poetry, never was there a motion that was useless.

The only thing that would have turned Naruto off to it was how female dominated the profession was. So instead of learning directly from the source he bought as many tapes as his monthly allowance could afford and studied in his alone time when he wasn't hanging out with a couple of the other orphans in the complex.

After two years and eighty seven broken bones, he could fly. He still had a lot of training to do if he wanted to get to the level of skill showed on the tapes, but he was perhaps the only academy student able to out jump any of the teachers.

Then he almost got mugged.

I say almost because of the end result.

On his way home from a visit to Ichiraku's Naruto was quite suddenly dragged into an alley a few blocks away from his house. The perpetrators were three large and half drunk men each with a hunting knife. The demanded all the money and valuables he had.

At this point in time Naruto was Nine, had been in the Academy for a year and had learned basic martial arts. He didn't know any jutsu at all and had no way of knowing if there was anything he could do prevent them from killing him if he refused, so he gave them what they asked for.

Unfortunately, for him or them is up to you, they decided to kill him anyways.

Laughing, the leader of the three approached with a wicked grin. Naruto tried to plead with him to leave him be, said that he'd never tell anyone what happened, holding his hands up in a pacifying gesture.

The man slashed horizontally and pain crossed Naruto's palms and blood began to pour out of two shallow wounds. It was at this point Naruto knew he had only three options.

One was unacceptable: give up and die.

Two was a little better: use the close walls and window ledges in the alley to get away while hoping that the muggers weren't ex ninja and couldn't follow him.

Three made the spark that started the fire: use the close walls, window ledges, and what little he knew in hand to hand combat to take out the three muggers.

Naruto knew if he did either of the first two it would invite repeat performances from these three, encourage them to mug others. The third was dangerous, but if he could win then he could stop them from hurting others.

The leader closed in as Naruto thought about how to defeat them.

It was by reflex alone that Naruto dodged the vicious slash aimed for his neck, bounded off the wall behind him, and thrust his left knee into the man's solar plexis, knocking him out cold.

Realizing that one was already hitting the floor out cold and the other two would soon turn on him for retribution, Naruto acted quickly. He jumped off the leader as he fell, towards the wall to the right, bounced of that to the other wall at a diagonal angle then dived into the second man with a drop kick to the face and then used him as a spring board to launch himself straight up into the air.

At the peak of his flight, near the top floor of the three story building on the left side of the alley, Naruto sighed in content as he felt the wind brush against his face. He almost forgot the situation he was in.

As he began his descent he narrowed his eyes then set his body into a spin that would turn him into a human bullet as he fell to the earth head first.

As he got within six feet of the ground it looked as if he would miss the last man, hit the concrete, and bust his head open for the world to see. Instead, at the last second he lashed out with his right leg, the fast spin adding a near deadly force to it. The kick caught the last man on the side of his bald head, stopped Naruto's spin, and allowed the young man to right himself before he touched down.

Breathing deeply, body still shaking from adrenaline, Naruto observed what he had done. He, a nine year old kid with only a years worth of ninja education had taken out three full grown men with a series of moves that had been mostly improvised.

Clapping suddenly caught his attention and he looked towards the end of the alley to see a tall man with a long beard applauding him.

Shaking away useless thoughts of the past, Naruto jumped off of his balcony and began bounding, hopping, and twisting acrobatically till he reached a street near Ichiraku's where he touched down and walked the rest of the way.

"Hey, old man," He greeted as he would every time he came.

"Hey, Naruto!" The middle aged ramen chef greeted kindly, "One of your usual?"

"Nah, I gotta fight tonight. Just three bowls will hold me off till I finish it," Naruto loved his ultrafast metabolism. So did most restaurants.

"Oh, who's it you're against this time? Hope it isn't another fellow like Ed," Ed was a fighter from across the ocean who came to the elemental nations to sell belts. Naruto actually owned three of Ed's finest creations, but that didn't stop the large foreigner from trouncing him each time they fought.

"Actually Ed's out of town on business. Tonight I'm facin' a rookie that's been climbing through the ranks pretty fast. Even brought my good shoes just in case he's really really good," Naruto gestured to the shoes draped over his shoulder.

Teuchi just grinned and said, "I see Ed's lessons stuck. Never underestimate your opponent."

Naruto grinned in return and waved a hello to Teuchi's daughter, Ayame.

A few minutes later Naruto finished eating and bid farewell to Teuchi and Ayame.

He walked a few blocks then once more took to the air.

Finally Naruto found himself at the designated meeting place for the fight. The place was nothing special really. Just an abandoned lot behind an old warehouse. People had gathered none the less. There were about forty spectators, a few fighters waiting their turn, and a familiar face staring Naruto down from across the lot.

"Uchiha?! What are you doing here?!" Naruto all but shouted, pointing accusingly at Uchiha Sasuke.

Sasuke frowned as he stepped forward, "I'm your opponent tonight. I'm beginning to think this is a waste of time, though. I ask for a fight against the best in the area and I get the class clown."

Naruto, though he had asked Sasuke what he was doing here, ignored the Uchiha and was inspecting his surroundings. It was a little more out in the open than he was used to... but what was life without a tough fight or two?

"Whatever," Naruto as he switched into his good shoes and bounced once or twice on his toes before grinning, "Let's do this."

Sasuke scoffed and just walked forward, his hands in his pockets. He clearly didn't think much of his opponent.

"Ha!" And quite suddenly Sasuke's face met the pavement. Naruto landed behind Sasuke a few feet away after delivering the unexpected heel drop to the boy's head, "Stand up, you drama queen. I know it would take more than that to take out the 'Great Uchiha'."

Sasuke growled as he pulled his face out of the cement. _Damn it! I let my guard down!_

Sasuke turned to face Naruto and smirked as he took up a stance, "You caught me by surprise that time. It wont happen agai-"

Naruto kicked Sasuke in the face, his leg extended diagonally forward and seeming to merge with Uchiha's face, "You talk too much. Just shut up and fight already."

Sasuke growled and, as quick as he could, grabbed hold of Naruto's foot. He then pushed upward with all of his strength hoping to knock the blonde off balance.

Naruto sighed as he allowed his balance to be lost and landed on his hands. When Sasuke tried to kick those out from under him he pushed himself into the air and started a spin.

Sasuke wisely decided to avoid the spinning projectile that his classmate had become as he shot upwards. When Naruto reached the peek of his flight, only a little lower than when he first fought the three muggers he stopped his spin by placing his arms and legs out, he then folded all his limbs in towards his body except for his right leg, he then started another spin that turned him into a human buzz saw.

Again Sasuke decided to avoid his opponent rather then trying to block. Again a wise decision.

At five feet from the ground Naruto broke out of the spin when he noticed he hadn't connected yet and grinned when he realized Uchiha was taking him seriously now.

Naruto landed in a crouch then rocketed forward. Sasuke tried to dodge to the side, but Naruto grabbed his collar as he passed and used the momentum to toss Uchiha forward while stopping his own movement.

People parted quickly allowing the Uchiha to hit the wall.

Sasuke growled and reevaluated his opponent. Dodging was doing nothing for him and he couldn't take the blonde for granted as he did his other opponents. He'd have to use an offensive strategy, but if what he had heard about the blonde was in the least amount true, and it may well be if that buzz saw kick was any indication, it would take more than superior strength to take out the class clown.

Sasuke thought for a moment then decided on a plan of action.

He stood up looked at Naruto who hadn't taken his eyes off of him as he simply stood there open to attack from all directions.

No, he couldn't let that fool him. He wasn't simply open to attack from all directions, he could move any way he pleased, attack anyone that came in range.

He grinned, his plan solidifying in his mind.

He stood up, dusted himself off, and raced forward. He feinted a kick from the right and as he expected Naruto tried to jump over it. Sasuke grabbed Naruto's legs and forced him back down to earth, slamming him back first into the ground.

From there Sasuke made to attack him before he could recover. He dived forward with a punch that was sure to knock the blonde out of the fight.

He grunted in pain when his fist hit the cement. He looked up and forward to see the blonde standing there with a grin on his face that would remind some of a predator.

"You stopped holding back, didn't you?" Naruto more stated than asked.

"Yeah," Sasuke said simply as he stood up to face his slightly taller classmate.

Naruto's grin grew as his head lowered to shadow his eyes with his spikey hair, "Then I guess... I'll do the same." And he was in the air above Sasuke like he'd been born there.

The Uchiha looked up stunned. How could this guy be so good. How could he move with out him seeing it? He was the best in class. He knew the academy forms better than anyone, he'd even incorporated certain stances into his own style to make it stro-

"So that's it..." Sasuke said, suddenly understanding why this clown was so good.

Naruto smashed Sasuke's head into the pavement once more, this time using his elbow. Sasuke was out cold.

As Naruto landed his grin turned into a smile, "That was fun... Hopefully I wont really be too busy with ninja work to fight anymore. This is almost as much fun as flying." He looked at the unconscious Uchiha and smiled wider, "He's gonna get strong fast."

After first checking if he had any other opponents, trouncing an over confident teen brat, and switching back to his sandals Naruto went home to sleep. He'd need a lot of rest if he wanted to pass the gennin exams tomorrow.

+-- The next day, midday--+

Naruto was almost to the point of screaming in boredom.

It was currently the Taijutsu portion of the exam and Naruto had seen the same damn fight six times already, the only thing different was faces and hair styles. None of them had enough balls to toss in a move or two to throw the instructor off balance. The instructors told them to do it, told them to improvise something to try and make it easier to win, told them that ingenuity was a good thing because the same trick hardly works twice in the world of ninja.

Did they listen?

Not a single one of them. Not even that guy from the Inuzuka's had the balls to do something original, even told his mutt to sit the fight out.

"Uzumaki, you're next," Said the silver headed instructor, Mizuki.

As he stepped down to the ring he thanked god for allowing him to do this and be able to move on to the written portion, at least that'd be a little less boring than watching these pathetic excuses for ninja trainees bore the teacher's to death with the same routine over and over again.

Thinking about that actually gave Uzumaki an evil idea.

He stepped into the ring, bowed to Iruka-sensei, and took up the academy taught taijutsu stance. He almost laughed when he saw the disappointed look on Iruka's face.

"Begin," Mizuki said and slashed his hand down in the universal sign to start.

Iruka made the first move, going to show Uzumaki the error of his ways by tossing him out of the ring with a lock the Academy taijutsu couldn't escape from.

Instead of grabbed the blonde student, though, Iruka found his arms grasping air. He blinked once before a foot seemed to come out of thin air and smash into his chin to send him airborne.

Naruto grinned as he landed on his own two feet and Iruka landed on his back. Iruka stood up shook himself off and grinned a little at Naruto.

"Leave it to you, Naruto, to pull a prank on testing day. Let's continue."

Naruto began bouncing from foot to foot as Iruka spoke and smirked when he mentioned the small prank he'd played. Now to really do some damage.

+-- Later that week --+

After giving Iruka a thorough beating that he would not soon forget Naruto went on to barely pass his written exam and get an okay on his jutsu test. He'd heard that something important happened later that night, but it was probably just a rumor.

Right now he was waiting for Iruka to come in and announce the teams so he could leave the academy and finally start savin' those princesses.

In the background he faintly registered the sound of Yamanaka and Haruno arguing over who got to sit next to Uchiha again, then the majority of the other girls joining in on the argument. Soon enough it became a brawl and surprisingly enough Haruno ended up on the top of the pile.

Only to discover one Riki Benso sleeping in her self claimed seat.

Naruto stopped paying attention then as Iruka had just walked in.

"Alright everybody, sit down and be quiet. Congratulations on making it this far..." Naruto sighed as he tuned out his former teacher. Why did every god damn occasion have to have some boring, unnecessary, mundane speech about some bullshit that more often than not has nothing to do with the situation at hand.

"...And for team six..." Oops, he'd skipped more than he meant to, hope his name hadn't been called yet, "Aikawa Maki, Sakamoto Julietta, and Uzumaki Naruto."

+-- After lunch --+

Naruto stared up at his new teacher in awe.

The guy was way tall, nearly eight feet to Naruto's measly five two. He had short cut white hair, grey eyes, nicely tanned skin, and a musculature structure that made Hercules look weak. He wore a black unzipped vest showing off his abs and pectorals, parachute pants with a crap loads of pockets everywhere, his head band on his left arm, black gloves, black leather boots, and wide black leather belt with an intricate silver and blue dragon on it's length.

"I didn't know you were a ninja, Ed."

+-- End Chapter one--+

A/N: Well, I hope that is good enough for y'all. Took me a while to come up with it. Sleeping Dragon is having a little bit of trouble so it'll probably be later than ever. Sorry people. Later.

TOSD


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: NEVER HOLD BACK!!

The almost malicious grin on the face of Uzumaki Naruto was enough to make lesser men run in fear. The shine in his ocean blue eyes traced glowing lines in the air as he moved forward at full force, not holding back in the slightest.

His opponent, a girl disguised as a Mist Hunter-nin, would have been frozen with awe were she not a weapon of Zabuza's. She dodged to the side as best she could hoping to not be hit by yet another seemingly random attack by.

She would however not be so fortunate as his left foot would catch her on her right shoulder and set her into a spin, he grabbed her other shoulder as it came around and used as a pivot point to throw himself upwards into the air, blasting his way through the upper most ice mirror. At the peak of his flight he let out his arms and legs to stop the small amount of spin he'd taken off of the nin he was fighting. He looked down at her and his smile went from predatory to peaceful.

"It was fun fighting you," he said barely loud enough for the nin to hear. He then started to descend at a speed far higher than should be possible if he was only pulled along by gravity. He lifted his right leg and stretched his left downward as far as it would go. He began to spin, slowly at first, but it picked up speed to the point where his features began to blur.

Haku by this point had landed and looked up just in time to see her opponents foot inches from her face, only a split second away from dealing the final blow...

+--- Two months earlier---+

"Ed? I didn't know you were a ninja of the Leaf," Naruto said as he jumped up to the big man's shoulder, staring intently at Ed's headband.

"Ah? Oh, right this thing," He tapped the headband on his arm, causing Naruto to swing his arms wildly in order to keep his balance and not fall off the guy's shoulder, "The guy with the funny hat-"

"Hakage-sama?" Julietta asked, disbelieving.

"Ah, yeah, Hokage-dude. He said that my strength could be used for the good of the village. I didn't believe him at first, but then he said if I did well out in the field, or taught kids to be good fighters, then more people would buy my belts," he finished with a big grin on his face.

Naruto hopped down to his two new teammates and whispered to them, "This guy is a total freak. If you want to be able to walk home today then you should just tell him your names and leave now."

"We can't do that," the girl, Maki, said in a monotone, "He's our jounin sensei. We have to wait for him to dismiss us."

Naruto hung his head and arms dejectedly, "Now you tell me. And I wanted to go fighting again tonight."

Maki and Julietta looked at their teammate, mildly concerned about what he thought this Ed guy had in store for them.

A booming clap was heard and all three looked up at Ed who had gone from his normal happy grin to something that looked sadistic. Maki and Julietta began to wonder if they should have taken Naruto's advice.

"Alright, lets see what you kids can do." Ed slid into a fighting stance.

Maki and Julietta just stood there looking at the man like he was crazy. They looked to Naruto to see if their instructor was joking since he seemed to know the guy, but he was just sitting on the ground cross legged with his back to them and seemed to be mumbling something.

He looked over his shoulder and saw them staring at him, "Hey, you two should attack him now. If Ed gets bored it's only gonna get worse." He waved them towards their instructor.

"What about you?" Maki asked, "Doesn't he need to know what your capable of too?"

"We've fought dozens of times, so he already knows all that I can do," He turned away and continued mumbling and drawing figures in the dirt.

Ed shook his head and said loudly, " Ah, the Hokage-dude told me you three are to work together to fight me, or you go back to the academy. I think it was supposed to be a test or somethin'."

Naruto palmed his own face as he stood up, "Ed, if it's supposed to be a test then you're not supposed to tell us about it."

"Ah," He said adopting a contemplating look, "Oh well, what's done is done. Now I want each of you to come at me with the best you've got." Ed took a step forward and the two who'd just met the guy swore that the ground shook.

"Alright, let's do this," Naruto began bouncing in place then looked at his teammates, "If you two have any super jutsu I suggest you break them out now." Naruto then jumped at Ed and tried to catch him in the face with a kick.

Ed blocked with his forearm and lifted it upwards with great force. Naruto allowed himself to be spun with the upwards movement and repositioned his body in the air to bring a high velocity elbow down on Ed's face. Again Ed stopped the blow and this time grabbed a hold of the blonde and threw him away, back towards the academy.

"You're gettin' better, munchkin! But you still lack force!" Ed yelled after the blonde. He then turned to his two other students, who hadn't quite caught on that they were supposed to be fighting yet.

"Looks like I'll need to take the initiative," He said aloud and began to advance on the poor gennin.

Julietta decided to go ahead and let loose. It certainly seemed as if their new teacher could take a good hit or two, so certainly nothing he could do would harm the guy.

Maki at the same time was wondering what would be best to use on this guy. While certainly not the best strategist in their year, she knew a good deal more about it than others and looking at this giant of a man, advancing on her and her remaining teammate she couldn't spot a single weakness that was normally there with big guys.

His center of gravity was shifting with each movement he made, impossible to tell where to next, it seemed like this was the kind of guy who could never be tripped. Even if he could be, she doubted she had the physical strength needed to force his legs out from under him.

The next glaring weakness for most big guys that was missing was the distribution of muscle on his body. Most guys his size focused solely on upper body strength. They would normally only work their legs enough to be just at the performance level they needed and relied heavily on their arms for attacks. She could tell even through the pants that this guy wore, baggy as they were, that his legs were just as heavily muscled as his arms and as she watched him bat around her other teammate she could see he had no qualms about using his legs to fight. That poor tree... and the poor people's house it fell on.

Third, and the one most exploited in this situation, was his speed. Guys his size normally were monstrously strong, but terribly slow when compared to most nin. They could easily be dodged.

Ed was however no where near normal, as you could already tell, and was quick as lightening.

Julietta slammed into the ground again and groaned. He supposed he was lucky that giant was holding back or he'd probably be dead. He sat up and looked to Maki hoping she'd come up with something to take this guy down with. He idly wondered where their third teammate was, but decided other matters were of more importance.

"Hey, Aikawa-san, got any advice I can use?"

"Run away," She said in a monotone.

"Aw, c'mon. I'm not that tough."

They looked towards their new sensei who had a large grin on his face. It was then that Maki saw it.

"I got it," she whispered to Julietta, "Jutsu."

"What?"

"I don't think he knows any jutsu. He said it himself that just a little while ago he was a civilian. He may not know how to combat them even. I'll put him under a genjutsu then you use something offensive."

"Like what?"

"Do you know any fire or wind jutsu?" She asked as she gathered chakra and began making handseals for a low level genjutsu that would make the user think they were in a field of flowers by themselves.

"Er...no. but I got a pretty cool lighting jutsu I saw some guy do a while back."

"When I give you the say so, fire it at his head," She cast the jutsu and a glazed look came to Ed's face, "Now, Sakamoto!"

Julietta quickly formed six hand signs that ended with the dragon sign and proceeded to launch three balls of lightening from his right hand without yelling the name of his jutsu.

The spheres of energy closed in on the giant of a man that was their sensei and the two almost dared to hope that they had beat him.

They should have known better.

Ed stuck his hand out just in time to 'catch' the balls of lightening and slam his other fist into the ground.

The two watched as the electricity visibly moved through his body, up his left arm, down his right, and dissipated in the earth.

"That was a good combo, you two really understand teamwork. Now where is my third student?" Ed said as he stood back up with a proud grin on his face.

Maki and Julietta looked at eachother then back at the academy where they had seen their teammate heading last.

When Naruto had finally been found he was hanging from a coat rack by the back of his shirt next to the girls rest room, which had a broken door, wearing a sign that said pervert and his body covered bruises and bumps. Ed laughed.

Later that evening, while Naruto was sleeping of his Righteous Feminine Fury induced wounds, Ed appeared in the hokage's office. The other jounin were already there and were reporting in whether or not their team's passed or failed.

The guy with hair as grey as Ed's reported that his 'Team Seven' had passed, just as the big man was coming in.

"Ah, Mr. Ed," Sarutobi greeted, "How did your team do?"

"They passed."

"Ma, that's not possible," The other grey haired man said, not looking away from his orange book.

"Oh. Why not?" Ed asked.

"Three teams have already passed, mine being the last, the rest are in the sixty six percentile that fails," Kakashi explained as if to a small child.

"Oh," He looked down with a slight frown for a minute before looking up with a huge grin on his face, "I guess that means my team really breaks the mould! Ha ha ha!" Kakashi tried yet again to tell Ed that it was impossible for his team to have passed, but the big man ignored him as he walked up to the Hokage, "Is it okay if I take my students out to my house to train? Don't get me wrong, they are great kids and good fighters, but e'ery one of 'em could use some conditioning."

Sarutobi made a show of giving it some thought before nodding, "Very well. You will need to bring them into the village once a week to do a mission though."

"Alright, later," Ed waved, again ignoring Kakashi's misgivings about his team actually passing.

+--- . ---+

At first, when Ed told them that they would be training with him, Maki and Julietta were a bit leery about being left to this man's machinations. Naruto just groaned and complained that his bruises hadn't fully healed yet.

After the first day they began to regret their choice to become ninjas. After the second they began to regret they were ever born. After the third they began to think Ed was trying to kill them. The fourth day was mission day.

Sarutobi had never had a team of gennin practically fall to their knees and cry in relief over a D-ranked mission.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh resembled the first second and third.

This routine continued for a month and a half, taking off only every Thursday for missions and every other Saturday for relaxation and recuperation. This, of course, meant that the three of them, under Ed's surprisingly sadistic management, were growing much stronger.

Ed didn't have them training with weights though, he said it was more detrimental than it was an improvement. He instead gave them each a stop watch, a clip board with excersizes they were to finish with a spot where they could mark their time for completion on each excersize, and the order to keep going till he told them to stop.

After lunch he'd let them each decide what they wanted to train in, giving them complete free reign as long as it was an active practice. Julietta chose ninjutsu, Maki chose to work on her taijutsu, and they were both surprised to find out that their blonde teammate was a gymnast in training when he set up a course free-runners have wet dreams about outside of Ed's house and started going at it. Every Sunday Ed would spar with them individually after breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Finally, one Thursday at the previously mentioned month and a half from the start of their training, Team Six stood before the Hokage who looked rather relieved to see them.

"Ah, good, you're here," Sarutobi motioned for Iruka to give Ed a particular mission scroll with a 'B' on it, "Team Seven began a mission yesterday that was originally C-ranked. Information was discovered by the jounin sensei that raises the rank to high B/low A. Instead of immediately returning with his team and abandoning the mission, as is proper protocol, he decided it would be a good learning experience for them. While I do agree that it would be good for them to see some of the high level shinobi battles I think it is too dangerous for a single jounin sensei and gennin team to take on alone. Ed, if you feel your team is ready, would you mind accompanying Team Seven on their mission to Wave Country?"

Ed looked at his students. Naruto was practically vibrating in spot at the mere thought of doing anything as awesome as a high ranking mission. Maki and Julietta looked like they were eagerly anticipating the mission as well, their reason was escape from the physical torture that Ed called training.

"Sounds like a plan," Ed grinned. Sarutobi gave a relieved smile back and sent them on their way.

After reading the scroll Ed turned to his students, "Okay, this says you need enough supplies for up to three weeks away from the village. You guys go get what ever you need and I'll meet you at the main gate."

Maki, Julietta, and Naruto all went on their way, the last taking to the roof tops with near unsurpassed grace.

Maki was the first there. She had everything packed in a large knap sack she carried over her shoulder. She wore a pair of baggy Cargo pants, loose enough to not effect movement, but tight enough to keep them from being easy to grasp. She had on a purple t shirt and over that a white tank top. She had copied the style from her Auntie Kaori.

Naruto showed up next in his usual day clothing. He carried a black back-pack, he was apparently listening to a portable music player as he approached, and, dispite all the grace he displayed when he fought and flew, none of it transfered over to his dancing skill. Maki actually laughed as she watched the blonde butcher all that was dancing in his approach.

Julietta and Ed showed up at the same time. Ed, like Naruto, hadn't bothered to change his clothes. Julietta however had donned a purely black suit and a white headband.

Naruto took one look at the other male on his team and said, "Okay, I'll bite. What's with the suit?"

"The greatest fighter ever wore a suit just like this. Haven't you ever heard of Kinjiro?"

"Nope."

"Uh-uh."

"No."

Julietta stared at them all with wide eyes before shaking his head and walking out of the gates as if he felt sorry for their ignorance.

Maki, Ed, and Naruto just looked at eachother, shrugged and followed Julietta out of Konoha.

+--- . ---+

After a long and boring two day trip, a swim to the island (Ed's idea.), and Julietta singing the praises of the great fight Kinjiro to anyone who would listen, they found themselves wandering into the house that their partner team was supposed to be staying at for the duraton of the mission.

Ed and his team entered the house just in time to hear a midget angst-out and say, "Why do you bother trying? You're just going to die."

Many occupants of the room moved to say something, scolding or inspirational it didn't really matter as Naruto spoke up with, "Yeah, but that's the point isn't it? We're all going to die someday, it's a fact. With the knowledge that we have a limited amount of time we should work our hardest to live a good life."

Everyone just stared at the blonde for a moment before the munchkin stood up and yelled, "Just shut up! You don't know anything about my pain!" Then the kid ran out of dining room and up the stairs, slamming his door with a loud bang.

Naruto gave a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his skull. Ed placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder and gave him a nod that let him know that he was proud of what his student had said despite the recipients reaction.

"Please, excuse Inari," the woman who appeared to be his mother said pleadingly. She hoped that her sons anguish wouldn't get the ninja fed up with them and make them leave. "Ever since his stepfather died at Gato's hands, he's been really depressed."

Ed spoke this time, "That's alright, ma'am. We all have our moments and the kid's just happens to be now." Ed turned to his fellow instructor, whom he did not recognize in the slightest, and asked, "So what's going on?"

Kakashi stood and motioned Ed to follow him outside to explain the finer details of the mission.

At the same time Riki, Sasuke, Sakura studied their partners in this mission.

After a couple of suspicious glances Riki just gave them a large grin and went back to his food with a casual 'Hi' thrown to them.

Sakura gave Maki a critical look, running her through the library of faces that were her known rivals for Sasuke. After only a couple of moments she recieved no matches and decided on a tentative friendship with the girl to see where her goals took her.

Sasuke just stared at Naruto with a slightly pissed off, slightly evaluating look that could only be generated through years of superior ( Or inferior, depending on your view of things) breeding. He noticed that the class clown that had defeated him a couple months ago had grown about an inch. He noticed that he seemed to have noticeable denser muscle, focused mostly on his legs. Finally, he noticed, much to his ire, that Naruto did not seem to recognize him. He gave a brief grunt and turned back to demolishing what was on his plate.

The woman, who introduced herself as Tsunami,then ushered the three of them into seats around the table and gave them fresh plates of food. Team Six thanked her and set into their meal with fervor.

Outside, Kakashi finished briefing Ed, "... And Zabuza appears to have an accomplice disguised as a Hunter-nin. That's everything."

Ed nodded his head in thanks for the information and turned to go inside, but stopped for the hand on his arm.

"To be perfectly honest with you, I do not like the fact that you are here. I do not like that fact that the Hokage gave you the position of Jounin without any military history to speak of, and most of all I do not like the fact that your students, left overs not capable of passing my simple bell test, are allowed to be on a mission of this rank. As the senior officer on this mission I am ordering you and your team to stay out of my team's way or they will deal with me personally and the Hokage when we return."

Now Kakashi tried to leave, but was similarly stopped by a hand on his arm.

"To be perfectly honest with you," Ed started, mocking the other jounin, "Your opinion means less to me than this pebble," he picked up a nondescript grey, rounded pebble, "And your order is just as fragile," he proceeded to crush the small rock between his forefinger and his thumb. "As for you assumptions regarding my students... Count your teeth the next time you feel like airing them, for you may find yourself with a number less than you had before hand." Ed put a smile back on his face and a subtle aura of death that had creeped up on the area, slowly turning colors grey, drowning out sounds, and driving away small animals, dissappeared.

Kakashi stared as the man who was a good foot and a half taller than himself walked into the house. He gave a brief frown and lifted his sleeve on the arm Ed had stopped him with. He was not surprised to see the large blackish bruise in the shape of the man's hand on his arm.

The rest of that week, for the most part, Team Six did avoid Team Seven, though not because of Kakashi's order. It was simply more convenient for each team to train seperate from the other. Having the other's there would breed a familiarity that would not be good should they come into a combat situation where they could not depend on someone who had been there during their training.

There was only one major altercation near the end of the week.

Sasuke, in his own way which consisted of leering at him, tried to get Naruto to remember him. He wanted a rematch against the class clown. Naruto had of course noticed the looks he was getting whenever they were in the same room and on Thursday it came to a head.

"Um, Sasuke-san," Naruto said a little nervously, "I understand that your... prefferences may be... alternative, but I assure you I am straight and find only the opposite sex appealing. So please, _please_ stop eyeing me like that."

It took a moment before everything settled in for everyone in the room.

Ed, Tazuna, Riki, Julietta, and even Maki, burst into laughter.

Kakashi frowned at Naruto for suggesting such a thing about his prized student.

Sakura seemed to be caught between dreaming up some kind of twisted yaoi fantasy that wouldn't happen in a million years and extreme anger that anyone would even hint that her crush was gay.

Inari was fighting with all that he was not to break out laughing. He was a sad boy. An angry boy. A boy with nothing left to loose. And angry, sad, little boys with nothing left to loose don't laugh.

Tsunami was unsuccessfuly trying to hide her giggles of amusement behind her hand.

Sasuke stood up in a huff, considered laying waste to the annoying blonde with a fire technique, and stormed off in mild rage... striking most of the room as malodramatic and supporting the theory currently on the table.

Ed, Tazuna, Riki, Julietta, Maki, and now Tsunami started laughing once again. Inari just gave them all the best glare he could at the moment and walked out of the room. Moments later they all heard the light laughter of a sad, angry, little boy who discovered he does laugh after all. Sakura was still caught betwixt emotions, but seemed to be leaning towards the fantasy. Kakashi gave off a sigh of exasperation and buried his nose back into his perverted book.

Through out all of this Naruto had managed to still keep up his nervous look. He did admit that had he been an observer he would have laughed, but as the victim of the Uchiha's staring he was not quite so inclined.

At the end of the week, though there was still tenson between the two teams, Kakashi took all six gennin with him to guard the bridge builder. Ed had stayed behind do to a slight hangover after being issued a challenge by Tazuna. As it turns out the giant of a man had a midget sized tolerance for anything alchoholic.

Immediately everyone knew something was wrong when they got to the mist shrouded bridge. Kakashi could smell the blood of the workers.

"Heh, heh, heh, heh," came the deep laughter of the man once known as the Demon of the Mist Village, "Looks like you are not to adept at predicting the future, Copycat Kakashi. You predicted my death and yet only a week later here I stand, this time prepared to end your miserable life."

The mist cleared enough to see Zabuza and his accomplice, a hunter nin that appeared to be the age of the gennin that Zabuza would identify as Haku. Zabuza was grinning under the bandages on the lower half of his face.

"And look at this, you even brought me more brats to kill after I finish with you," he began to chuckle again as he noticed what seemed to be quivers of fear out of two of the gennin. He was about to say something to that effect when the blonde one suddenly became a blur.

The blonde was however stopped not half a second later by Kakashi's hold on the back of his shirt.

"Naruto, what the hell are you doing?"

"What does it look like, you one eyed pervert?! I sure as hell ain't sellin' girlscout cookies," Naruto shouted as he tried to free himself from Kakashi to get at the two enemy ninja.

"It looks like you were about to attack a superior nin with no plan what so ever in mind, probably resulting in your death."

" Are you kidding me? I've had a plan ever since the moment the Hokage told us this guy was in the mission."

"Oh, so you must have done some research on him befor-"

"Nope."

"Then you had heard rumors that were probably exagger-"

"Nope."

"Okay then. If you don't even know anything about the man you are about to fight then how in the hell did you figure out a plan that would invariably defeat him? How would you factor in the techniques he uses if you do not know what they are? What kind of plan could you have possibly come up with if you didn't even know the man's name before you were assigned this mission?" Kakashi was severely displeased. He would really need to talk to the Hokage about letting that Ed guy keep teaching. It just didn't appear beneficial to the health of these children.

"My plan," Naruto looked over his shoulder in a condescending manner, as if labeling Kakashi a coward for not already fighting alongside him, "...is to win!" He redoubled his struggling.

Kakashi looked at the blonde for a few moments before palming his face, "Just go back and guard Tazuna, Uzumaki. No 'but's. This is an order from a superior."

Naruto seemed to think that over for a couple of seconds before he stopped struggling and started grumbling. Anyone listening could make out the words 'spoilsport' and 'cowardly pervert'.

Zabuza, having seen all this, began chuckling.

"Something tells me that one is not a student of yours, Kakashi," He removed his sword from his back signaling that the real battle was about to begin.

"What makes you say that?" Kakashi took a rather long Kunai from his weapons pouch and stood at the ready.

"Cause he's got the balls that you are apparently trying to cut from your team," Zabuza said before turning to Haku, "You take care of the brats. Take as long as you need."

The mist reformed around both factions, and, despite his grumbling, Naruto took up a defensive position next to his female teammate in order to better guard Tazuna.

It did not take long for Haku to lure away two of the students, Benso Riki and Uchiha Sasuke, and trap them in a dome of frozen mirrors. For the first few minutes of the fights nothing was revealed about either of the fights going on around them except for the sounds of battle. The names of jutsu were called at seemingly random occasions, metal clanged, and pain became audible.

Finally the fight bewteen Zabuza and Kakashi had moved far enough down the bridge for the mist to fade, if only a little, and show the battle between Haku, Riki, and Sasuke.

The longer he watched, the more Naruto wanted to be in there. Every attack thrown, every boast made, every time one of his fellows nearly bit the dust to a senbon barrage, the more Naruto appeared to want to show his fangs.

And finally an opening appeared.

Fighting in a battle for his life Sasuke had activated his clan's famed bloodline. It had given him an edge against the ice using ninja... for a few minutes. The Sharingan ate up chakra as quick as, if not quicker than, those fireball techniques he used.

As Sasuke began to loose his footing, Haku launched a volley at him, and Riki stepped in to take the blow for his comrade. With Riki knocked out by the senbon, and Sasuke in dreamland from chakra exhaustion, Naruto grinned.

He began to walk forward.

"Maki, Julietta, please stay and help guard Tazuna-san. I will stop the ice user." Hearing the tone of their comrade's voice, that inaudible sound of a predator about to pounce on its prey underlining each word, they decided it was best to stay out of his way for the time being.

As he walked towards the girl in disguise he began to speed up with each step.

Haku, fortunately for her, noticed his approach soon enough to escape into one of her mirrors.

Naruto grinned as he saw her do this and picked up the pace of his charge. At only a couple feet from her mirror he brought his shoulder to bare and smashed through the plate of ice like so much glass, a seemingly insane grin painted on his face.

Haku had escaped to a different mirror. She looked down at the blonde now standing within her dome, grinning from ear to ear as he stared at her. He didn't seem to even be paying attention to his two comrades she had knocked out.

"You are rather heartless," Haku said in monotone, using the time she had while speaking to set up an attack, "to not even concern yourself with the deaths of your comrades."

Naruto looked over his shoulder at the two unconscious boys. He could not see if they were breathing and was sure that if he put chakra to the task of enhancing his hearing he wouldn't hear their hearts beat.

He dodged the volley of senbon Haku threw at him in his moment of distraction and grinned as he said, "Well either one of two things happened. The least likely is that you put them into a near death state like you did for Zabuza- Fuck Hatake for not letting me fight him from the start- to cause emotional turmoil in the remaining gennin making it easier to put them into the same state and then use our 'deaths' to dishearten our jounin into making foolish mistakes that you would exploit. The one I find more likely is that you fought them and they you to the best of their ability and they died with their boots on. A beautiful death for ones as young as us. Now it's my turn."

"You... you want to die?" Haku was in shock. How could someone so young see such a death at the hands of the enemy beautiful. How? There was no reasoning. It was incompatible with all that she had been taught. Death was meaningless. It only meant that you were of no further use besides fertilizer. It was something to avoid at all costs.

"Are you crazy?! I don't want to die at all! I don't think anyone in their right mind wants to die," His grin, having disappeared only momentarily, came back in full force, "But if it's my time then I'm going down with a fight. And if you've fought a Class Five All-Arounder then you'll know that there is nothing more beautiful than an all out battle of skill, will, and strategy. So let's get this show on the road. Give me your best and I'll return the favor."

Haku studied her opponent, who took a couple seconds to bounce on his feet and loosen his joints. She could practically feel the anticipation rolling off the boy. It was far different from the two she had faced earlier. They had let off waves of negative anxiety, fear, and from the Uchiha, bloodlust. This blonde however just seemed to glow with... joy.

Even though she did not understand how the blonde's mind worked she could not help the small smirk that formed under her mask at the sheer kinetic energy coming from the kid.

Thoughts, theories, and , from that moment on, left the area.

Haku stepped out of her mirror, but let the dome remain. The fact was that the mirrors were her best technique for deffence. They were also quite useful for the offence she was about to employ.

Water floated up from the ground and into her hand. It then lengthened, sharpened itselft, and froze into the shape of a straight edge three foot sword. More water was brought up from the ocean below and followed the same process until thirteen identical swords, including the one she was holding, occupied the dome.

Naruto's grin matched the glow in his eyes as he got ready for the fight to begin, glad he had decided to wear his good shoes today. This was gonna be fun.

For a few seconds the two of them stared eachother down.

If one were to choose one word for both fighter's opening move it would have to be 'Boom!'

Naruto flashed forward with speed gained through Ed's insane training methods.

Haku brought her first sword back and to her right then swung it upwards diagonally at the incoming blonde sending a flurry of ice shards at him.

Naruto dodged those by twisting out of the way then launching into the air. He began to spin and as he neared her lashed out with his left leg.

Haku blocked with her sword, but it shattered and the kick connected with her face. Luckily her mask took most of the damage and she shook off the slight headache that formed with taking the hit. She grabbed another sword before he could attack again and sent three more waves of shards at him. She followed them this time, not wanting to let him get enough distance from her to use another aerial attack.

Naruto dodged the shards by a twist to the left, a jump doing the splits, and the last by another spin. He was barely able to dodge the actual blade by dropping into another split on the gound and even then the blade grazed his shoulder.

Naruto then lifted up on his hands lightening fast and propelled both feet into her stomach. He then lifted his legs up into the air to stand on his hands and began a ground based spin.

Haku caught her self and landed on her feet near the edge of her dome. She summoned another sword to her other hand and charged back at the blonde.

Naruto spread his legs apart into a split yet again, this time with one leg forward and the other back.

As soon as one of the boys legs came close, Haku jumped into the air herself. She unleashed two waves of shards at the same time from her swords.

Instinct alone saved Naruto from a direct hit. Three shards, not much larger than the senbon Haku had been throwing around earlier, were imbedded in his right thigh. He ripped them out with a slight grimace of pain as he stood quickly.

On impulse he grabbed one of the remaining ten swords floating around the dome and jumped up to meet Haku in the air.

Haku was mildly surprised that he had thought to arm himself with one of her weapons, but dismissed it as unimportant as he proved in their brief clash in the air that he knew nothing of the arts of the blade.

His swing was sloppy at best, but it did at least serve the purpose of forcing her to block and had enough force to shatter the sword he was using and the one she had blocked with. He then launched a punch at her face that connected, but not with as much force as he'd wish as she brought her remaining sword to bare and slashed a shallow cut across his chest.

They both hit the ground, but didn't pause in their confrontation.

Haku grabbed another sword and Naruto shattered the three near him before launching himself at her.

Instead of responding with an attack in kind, Haku sank into one of her mirrors and came out of another to Naruto's left and slashed horizontally at him.

Naruto jumped over the blade at the last second and brought his heel down on the blunt edge of the sword, causing another shatter, and threw a roundhouse kick.

Haku dodged and use the opportunity to cut Naruto's leg as it passed over her head.

Naruto hissed, but didn't stop and put a mule kick into her ribs a split second after bringing his other leg down.

Haku flew backwards into one mirror and came out swinging from the one at the top, more shards flowing from her swing.

Naruto pulled off yet another dodge, jumped at her, and grabbed her sword as soon as it was within range. He ignored the pain of yet another cut to his hand and used his free hand to grab Haku by the shoulder and proceeded to land ten consecutive kicks to her stomach and ribs before twirling them so that her back was facing the ground and gave her his most vicious kick yet.

Her grip had become lax from the barrage and Naruto still held firm to the sword so ripped it out of her grasp before landing and shattering it like the others.

Haku stood up, took a quick stock of her situation, and decided to end it. She disposed of all but one of her swords, needing the chakra it would take for this final technique that was beeing eaten up maintaining them.

She took her last sword and stepped into a mirror. Like before her appearance spread to all the mirrors. The mirrors then began to glow setting her image into a sillouette.

Naruto looked around at all the mirrors and gave a short whistle. Short for the reason that the attack then began.

Haku rushed at Naruto with speeds nearly untrackable. The blonde barely managed to dodge.

He wasn't however able to dodge the next, or the one after that, or the many more after that.

Shallow gashes began appearing all over Naruto's body.

Haku was now confident that the battle was hers.

But to declare victory before the opponent had fallen had been the folly of ninja far better than her.

"YeeeaaaaaAAAAAHH!!" with a beastial roar of pain and determination Naruto managed to land a monstrous blow to her stomach with his fist. Blood, oxegyn, and spittle was forced past Haku's lips as she took the full force of the blow, multiplied by her speed at coming toward him. She hit the ground and rolled to her feet dispite her gasping just intime to seem him launch at her yet again.

The almost malicious grin on the face of Uzumaki Naruto was enough to make lesser men run in fear. The shine in his ocean blue eyes traced glowing lines in the air as he moved forward at full force, not holding back in the slightest.

Haku would have been frozen with awe were she not a weapon of Zabuza's. She dodged to the side as best she could hoping to not be hit by yet another seemingly random attack.

She would however not be so fortunate as his left foot would catch her on her right shoulder and set her into a spin, he grabbed her other shoulder as it came around and used as a pivot point to throw himself upwards into the air, blasting his way through the upper most ice mirror. At the peak of his flight he let out his arms and legs to stop the small amount of spin he'd taken off of the nin he was fighting. He looked down at her and his smile went from predatory to peaceful.

"It was fun fighting you," he said barely loud enough for the nin to hear. He then started to descend at a speed far higher than should be possible if he was only pulled along by gravity. He lifted his right leg and stretched his left downward as far as it would go. He began to spin, slowly at first, but it picked up speed to the point where his features began to blur.

Haku by this point had landed and looked up just in time to see her opponents foot inches from her face, only a split second away from dealing the final blow...

Haku saw her life flash before her eyes for the briefest moment before she felt herself pulled out of the way of the boys final attack.

She looked to her savior to find a giant of a man with a frown on his face as he looked toward the end of the bridge that the two elder ninja were fighting. Haku removed her mask for a better view and turned to follow his gaze.

Naruto, having missed his intended target, hit the concrete of the bridge and wound up making a spiderwep of cracks ten feet wide.

"Hey! What the hell, Ed?!" Naruto noticed the direction of his superior's gaze and followed that.

At the south end of the bridge stood the head of the Gato Shipping industry, Gato himself, surrounded by fifty to sixty mercenaries.

He was obviously speaking to the Ninja on that end, but Naruto couldn't make a word out of it. The point though became clear when Zabuza shouted in rage and threw his massive sword like a buzzsaw blade at the midget of a gangster.

The spinning blade cut Gato's rant short by seperating his head from his shoulders and killing a number of the mercenaries behind him as well.

"Well..." Naruto winced in pain as his wounds caught up to him, "I guess that means we're not enemies anymore." Naruto turned to look at his opponent and saw her face for the first time, he frowned for a second. "You're a girl?"

Haku nodded slowly.

Naruto thought for a moment before he got a kind of goofy grin on his face and said, "Wow... I think I'm in love." And with that he passed out from minor blood loss.

Haku could only think of one suitable response to the blonde's declaration.

"EH?!"

+-- End Chapter 2--+

A/N: And that my wonderful readers is one of the longest chapters i've written in a while. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please leave a review if it suits you.


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